What Does OSHA 10 Cover? Construction and General Industry Topics

The OSHA 10-hour course covers workplace safety and health awareness across six required hours of core instruction, two hours of trainer-selected elective modules, and two optional hours the trainer can shape to the audience. It comes in two tracks — one for construction under 29 CFR 1926 and one for general industry under 29 CFR 1910 — and both open with the same mandatory hour on OSHA and workers’ rights.¹

How the Ten Hours Break Down

Every OSHA 10 class follows the same three-part shape. Six hours go to required topics that every student must complete. Two hours go to elective modules the trainer picks from a pre-approved list, with at least two different topics represented. The final two hours are optional time the trainer can use to expand on a required or elective topic, address site-specific hazards, or walk through company safety policies. No single segment can run shorter than 30 minutes.²

The required six hours differ between the two tracks, but the opening hour is identical. Everything after that hour depends on whether you are taking the construction version or the general industry version.

Introduction to OSHA and Workers’ Rights

The first hour of both versions teaches workers what OSHA is, how the agency enforces workplace safety standards, and what rights employees have under the law. Those rights include a safe workplace, the ability to report hazards or file a complaint without retaliation, and the right to request an OSHA inspection.³

This hour also covers employer responsibilities, how to read a Safety Data Sheet, and how to interpret the OSHA Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses (Form 300). Students learn where to find safety resources and what the weekly fatality and catastrophe reports look like.⁴

Construction Track Required Topics

After the OSHA introduction, the construction course spends four hours on what OSHA calls the Focus Four hazards — the four leading causes of death on construction sites — and one more hour on personal protective equipment and health hazards. Each hazard has a firm time floor built into the 2024 Construction Procedures.⁴

The Focus Four Hazards

Falls, a minimum of one hour and thirty minutes. Falls are the largest single cause of construction fatalities, so this topic gets the most time. Instruction covers fall protection systems, safe use of ladders and scaffolding, and recognizing unprotected edges and openings.
Electrocution, a minimum of thirty minutes. Workers learn to identify electrical hazards, keep safe distances from power lines, and use ground-fault circuit interrupters properly.
Struck-by hazards, a minimum of thirty minutes. Covers risks from falling objects, moving vehicles, cranes, and swinging loads on an active site.
Caught-in or caught-between hazards, a minimum of thirty minutes. Focuses on trench cave-ins, unguarded machinery, and situations where a worker can be compressed or crushed between objects.

PPE and Health Hazards

The remaining required hour is split into two 30-minute blocks. The PPE segment teaches students how to select, fit, and maintain gear such as hard hats, safety glasses, gloves, and fall harnesses. The health hazards segment can address excessive noise, hazard communication, crystalline silica exposure, or another construction-related health risk, chosen by the trainer to fit the audience.⁴

General Industry Track Required Topics

The general industry course is built for warehouses, manufacturing plants, healthcare facilities, and similar fixed workplaces. Its six required hours are split evenly, one hour each, across six topics:

Introduction to OSHA — the same workers’ rights and employer responsibility hour used in the construction track.
Walking and working surfaces, including fall protection. Covers slips, trips, and falls on level floors, elevated platforms, and stairways, which are the most common injury scenario in general industry settings.
Exit routes, emergency action plans, fire prevention, and fire protection. Teaches how to evacuate safely during a crisis, spot fire risks, and use suppression equipment.
Electrical hazards. Focuses on recognizing electrical dangers in a fixed facility, lockout/tagout awareness, and proper use of electrical equipment.
Personal protective equipment and lifesaving equipment. Covers gear that guards against chemical splashes, impacts, and other workplace exposures.
Hazard communication. Deals with chemical labeling, Safety Data Sheets, and workers’ right to know about hazardous substances they may encounter.

The general industry track has no dominant hazard category the way construction does. Each topic gets equal weight.⁵

Elective and Optional Hours

Once the six required hours are done, the trainer picks at least two elective topics from a pre-approved list and spends a minimum of two hours on them. The list is different for each track. Construction electives include scaffolds, excavations, cranes, stairways and ladders, welding and cutting, confined spaces, ergonomics, fire protection, tools, and steel erection, among others.⁴

That flexibility lets the trainer match the content to the work the students will actually do. A crew heading to a high-rise project might get elective time on steel erection and scaffolds; a road construction crew might focus on motor vehicles and excavations. General industry electives work the same way. A warehouse audience might get powered industrial vehicles and material handling; a chemical plant crew might get confined spaces and process safety.

The last two hours are optional time. The trainer can go deeper on a required or elective topic, address hazards specific to a particular job site, or introduce company safety policies and internal reporting procedures. All of it still has to be occupational safety and health content. Topics like CPR, first aid, or training that fulfills a separate OSHA standard cannot count toward the 10-hour total.²

What OSHA 10 Does Not Cover

The most common misunderstanding about the course is that it satisfies an employer’s legal duty to train workers under specific OSHA standards. It does not. OSHA states plainly that the outreach program “does not meet training requirements for any OSHA standards.”⁶ Employers who need to provide hazard-specific training on lockout/tagout, respiratory protection, bloodborne pathogens, or any similar standard must deliver that training separately, at the employer’s expense.

OSHA 10 is a general awareness program, not a certification of competency. Finishing the course does not qualify a worker to operate specific equipment, enter a confined space, or perform any activity that requires task-specific training under the law.

How OSHA 10 Differs From OSHA 30

OSHA’s outreach program also runs a 30-hour version. The 10-hour class is aimed at entry-level workers and stays at the awareness level. The 30-hour class goes deeper on the same subject matter and is designed for supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility on the job.⁷

Several states require the 10-hour course for construction workers on public works projects and the 30-hour course for supervisors. Because those are state-level mandates, the details vary. Check with your state’s labor department or licensing board to confirm what applies to your job site.¹

1
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Program Overview
2
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA Outreach Training Program Requirements 2024
3
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Introduction to OSHA Instructor Guide 2024
4
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA Outreach Training Program Construction Procedures 2024
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA Outreach Training Program General Industry Procedures 2024
6
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Training Requirements in OSHA Standards
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Outreach Training Program